Group items tagged

towards a game tutorial to "adapts to the skill of the player and tailors itself to the individual player"

abstract: "This literature review will discuss the efficacy of using video game programming as an attractor and entry point to engage middle- and high-school girls in a computer science curriculum. The review begins by exploring historical trends of female participation in the technology industry and in computer science programs at the high-school and collegiate levels, and the impact these trends have on women's opportunities. For additional background context, the review will then review a number of empirical studies regarding girls' attitudes toward computer science, as well as environmental and social influences that impact their participation in the field. It will then identify the educational and social goals of increased female participation in the computer science curriculum and briefly discuss various potential attractors that have been under investigation. Finally, the review will describe specific research studies that explore both how effective the teaching of computer game design is in attracting female students to a computer science course of study, as well as its efficacy in teaching important computer science concepts."

"Abstract: Previous research proposes that human beings are motivated to protect endangered species by both instrumental values and intrinsic values of biodiversity. However, it has been difficult to tease apart the two kinds of value at the behavioral level. Using an innovative fishing game, we tested one kind of instrumental value (financial value) and one kind of intrinsic value (existence value) of the endangered Steller sea lion. In the fishing game, players make repeated decisions on how much Pollock to harvest for profit in each period in a dynamic ecosystem. The population of the endangered sea lion depends on the population of Pollock, which in turn depends on the harvesting behavior of humans. The data show that in general, people responded to the financial value, but not the existence value, of the sea lion by cutting down commercial fish harvesting to keep more sea lions in the ecosystem. However, not all people behaved the same regarding the existence value. Females displayed a higher existence value than males, as did people who reported stronger proenvironmental attitudes than those with less pro‐environmental attitudes. Our findings have multiple implications on public opinion elicitation and public policy design."

Excerpts available on Google Books, published in May 2012. Praise for The Gamification of Learning and Instruction"Kapp argues convincingly that gamification is not just about adding points, levels and badges to an eLearning program, but about fundamentally rethinking learning design. He has put together a brilliant primer for learning professionals on how to gamify learning, packed with useful advice and examples."

"This study evaluates player's performance respective to three visual search conditions in a railed shooter game. Each condition alters the presentation of elements according to the similarity theory of visual search, which distinguishes how easy or difficult goal-relevant targets (T) are from non-target distractions (NT). Significant performance differences are found for accuracy, XY screen position of mouse clicks, and level time. The benefit of this approach identifies performance tradeoffs in visual design with implications on game balancing."

Q. So you designed the game and programmed it yourself? A. I did all of the art and background, I programmed the levels, I did the music, the timing. I outsourced the programming to a company in New York. I pretty much did everything I could possibly do except the raw coding itself.

"Electronic Arts CTO Rajat Taneja on big data's growing role in the video game world."

First master's level game design program in NYC area

In the next twelve months more schools will be setting homework assignments for their students to play computer games. This will be because schools, expecting more of their students, will be looking for ways to support them to develop a deep level of understanding in, say, science, maths, or in being effective creators and consumers of the digital world (how to code, mash-up websites, design apps and so on).

"The continuous quest for ever increasing fidelity in 3D virtual worlds is running parallel to the emergence and adoption of low-cost technologies to implement such environments. In education and training, complex simulations can now be implemented on standard desktop technologies. However, such tools lack the means to represent multisensory data beyond audio-visual feedback. This paper reports on a study that involved the design, development and implementation of a 3D learning environment for underground mine evacuation. The requirements of the environment are discussed in terms of the sensory information that needs to be conveyed and techniques are described to achieve this using multiple modes of representation, appropriate levels of abstraction and synesthesia to make up for the lack of tactile and olfactory sensory cues. The study found that audio-visual cues that used such techniques were effective in communicating complex sensory information for novice miners."